Best. Housewarming. Gift. Ever.

This. Amazing.

What if...

Eleanor and I would have spent Friday night actually being productive?

Thank you City of Chicago

For making my day a completely miserable one.

The end of an era.

In less than a week I will enter into the world of single livingship. After having to share living quarters for 28 years (keep in mind, I didn't even get to be alone in the womb!) it's about time.

My current roomie and I have had some great times. There was this night. And our oh so lovely relationships with our many property managers. But we got by, even prospered.

So I just wanted to give a shout out to one of my best friends who has shared the good times and bad times with me for the last three years. There will always be a seat at my table, always a spot on my couch, always a second glass to be poured. Thanks for the memories.



Let's go make some more!

Name my Dodgeball Team

I need ideas for a dodgeball team we're starting in a month.

Throw some at me.

Lake House Weekend 2008

We do it every year.

Here are some of my favorite moments captured on camera from this weekend.



Thanks to Pete for catching all of them on film.

Hey look!

It's me at a White Sox game and I'm smiling! GO CUBS!

A few things I've learned...

...in the last twenty-eight years.

Say please and thank you, even to strangers.

Don't scrimp on car or renter's insurance. Get full coverage.

If a family member needs you, you go.

Kindness will always get you further than cruelty.

If it's important, send it certified US Mail.

Anything work related can wait.

Look at people when they talk to you.

Respect other people's boundaries, even if you don't share them.

You teach people how to treat you. Teach them to treat you fairly and with respect or no one else will.

Call ahead before you fly.

Everything has a silver lining and if it doesn't, make your own.

Fake it 'til you make it, baby.

Do not grocery shop on Sundays. The stores are way too crowded.

There is absolutely no reason to be purposefully mean to anyone.

Excuses are unnacceptable.

Don't wait for people to change. Move on. They'll come with you or they won't.

Happiness is a choice.

Always let your cookies cool for five minutes on a cookie sheet before moving them to a rack.

Back up your hard drive every three months.

Yelling or screaming is not cool. Or necessary.

When people show you who they are, believe them.

Voting is a priviledge AND a right.

There are two types of people in the world: those who send thank you cards and those who don't.

You don't have to use a baby voice to talk to a toddler.

Invest the max percent of your paycheck into your 401k as soon as you enroll. Especially if your company will match it.

There is always a way.

Have an opinion, but don't offer it unless you are asked for it. Especially about politics.

Read every day. Your vocabulary will double as you see words used in context.

There you have it. That's one thing I've learned for every year I've been on this earth.

Please feel free to share your wisdom, too.

The road not taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.